Shop Windows to the Universe

Quickie Questions - Other Solar System Stuff - Other

Date Answered

Questioner (age, location)

Question

Answer

February 5, 2010

Cynthia (age , )

What is the size of our Solar System?

There is no final answer to this question, because there are many ways to calculate the reach of the Solar System. One of the most common is to use the orbit of Pluto as the limit (which leaves out the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud). So, we will use the average distance between the Sun and Pluto as the radius of the Solar System, which is 5,913,520,000 km, or 39.5 AU (Astronomical Unit).

February 5, 2010

Jayla (age 10, Ohio)

how far is Neptune from Uranus approximately

The closest approach between the two orbits is 9.80523772 AU (a little more than 911 million miles).

January 25, 2010

Lory (age 34, Guam)

What are the names of the planets and how many are there?

Our web page Our Solar System responds your questions and offers much more information on the planets, moons, comets, etc.

January 25, 2010

Lory Ngirailild (age 34, Guam)

What are the names of the planets and how many are there?

Our web page Our Solar System responds your questions and offers much more information on the planets, moons, comets, etc.

January 11, 2010

Becca (age 12, UK)

Whereabouts is the Solar System in our galaxy?

Our Solar System is about 26 000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is about 80 000 to 120 000 light-years across and less than 7 000 light-years thick. The solar system is situated within a smaller spiral arm, called the Local or Orion Arm, which is a connection between the Sagittarius Arm and the Perseus Arm.

Jovian planets are also known as gas giants. There are four Jovian planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They are the outer planets. The term Jovian came from Jupiter.

January 4, 2010

Juri (age 10, I live in Japan)

Which of comets,asteroid,or meteors have slightly elliptical orbits?

Comets, as planets, have elliptical orbits.

January 4, 2010

Jill (age 13, United States)

How did all the planets(except mercury,) come to have an axial tilt. I need an exact explanation.

I don't think there is an exact explanation. The most widely accepted theory is that during the formation of the Solar System objects of significant masses, probably protoplanets, collided with them, causing the tilt of the axis.

December 28, 2009

Andrew (age 14, USA)

Where is the position of the Sun in the elliptical orbits of each planet?

The position of the Sun is always in ine of the focuses of the ellipse.

December 22, 2009

Raymond (age 8, L.a)

why is pluto not a plantet

Pluto is still a planet, although it is now clasified as a Dwarf Planet

December 22, 2009

Julia (age 14, Nigeria)

Is planet sedna still in existence and its statistics and its features.please help me, i couldnt get anything in the web? THANK YOU for your time

There is no much information known about Sedna, it is way too far! Visit our web page Sedna for more information.

December 17, 2009

Venetia (age 11, Florida)

How many moons does the dwarf planet Eris have?

Eris is a dwarf planet in our Solar System. Eris was one of the first three objects classified as a dwarf planet, along with Pluto and Ceres. Eris was first spotted in January 2005. Eris has a moon named Dysnomia.

October 27, 2009

Aylla (age 10, massachussets)

why is pluto not a planet anymore?

PLuto was just reclasified as a dwarf planet, a recently defined grup. See our web page Dwarf Planets for more information.

October 27, 2009

jahnavi (age 10, India)

why are planets useful to us?

The study of other planets offers information about the origin of the solar system, and of our own planet. This permits us better understand, and care for our beautiful Earth.

October 27, 2009

yajna (age 11, Madhya Pradesh/ India)

what is volcano& how it is formed?

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface.
Volcanoes form when hot material from below rises and leaks into the crust. This hot material, called magma, comes either from a melt of subducted crustal material, and which is light and buoyant after melting, or it may come from deeper in the interior of a planet and is light and buoyant because it is *very* hot.

There have been several recent discovery of planets orbiting other stars. If you ask about new planets in our solar system, the latest discoverd are all Dwarf Planets:
Eris, 2005
Makemake, 2005
Haumea, 2003 - 2005
Ceres, 1801

October 8, 2009

srujan (age 20, india)

why does the acceleration due to gravity changes from one planet to other planet?

The acceleration of gravity is a direct result of the action of the gravitational field of a planet over objects nearby. The gravitational force is proportional to the product of the masses (in this case, the mass of the planet times the mass of the object) and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Because the mass of the planets are different, their gravitational pull, and therefor their acceleration of gravity, are different.

September 30, 2009

Philip (age 11, London, England)

Why are the rings of Jupiter at the centre?

Is there more gravity at the centre in which case are people who live near the equator heavier than people in England!

The position of the rings is related with the centrifugal force (from Latin centrum "center" and fugere "to escape"), which represents the effects of the inertia related with the rotation. These forces are experienced as an outward force away from the center of rotation.

September 30, 2009

Robert (age 12, Australia)

Witch planet except the Earth was first discovered?

Only three of the nine planets have official dicovery dates. They are Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The rest of the planets are easily seen with the unaided eye, and have been known since ancient times.

September 14, 2009

Bryce (age 13, Colorado)

What is spin?

Spin, in the context of the celestial bodies, is the continuous rotation of a planet or moon around its own axis.

August 20, 2009

niranjan (age 15, india)

why does planets rotate

The motions of the Sun, planets, and the rest of the solar system objects are primarily related to the original motion of the solar nebula from which the system was formed.

February 3, 2003

Samantha (age 13, California, USA)

What is the difference between moons and planets?

Planets orbit around the Sun. Moons orbit around a planet.

Some moons are actually as big as, or larger than, some planets.
For example, Ganymede,
one of the moons that orbits the giant planet Jupiter
is larger than Mercury (one of the smallest planets).

January 30, 2003

Chris (age 17, England)

Who gave the planets in our solar system their symbols?

The symbols that we use for each planet come from the Celtic people who once lived in the British Isles as well as other places in Europe.

When will the five visible planets(Mercury, Mars, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter) be observable in the evening sky over the next twelve months?

In the next 12 months:Venus can be seen from now until mid-November in the Eastern sky at dawn, and then from March 2002 to September 2002 in the Western sky at dusk.

Mercury can be seen in mid to late October in the morning sky, low in the east, and then in late April and early May in the evening sky, low in the west.

Mars can be seen in the constellation of Scorpio in July and August, Sagittarius in September and October, Capricorn in November, Aquarius in December, Pisces in January and February, and Aries in March. Mars will be tough to see after this, until January 2003, because it will be visible only at twilight.

Jupiter will be visible in Gemini in the morning sky from July 2001 until June 2002, at which point it will be obscured by the sun for a few months, then reappear in Cancer in August 2002.

Geology has traditionally been thought of as the study of the history of the Earth and its life especially as recorded in rocks. But even Merriam-Webster has updated its definition of geology to include "a study of the solid matter of a celestial body." Many of the spacecraft sent to other planets have shed new light on the geology of these planets and their moons (what is the surface made of, what are rocks like on that planet or moon, are there plate tectonics, volcanoes, or a magnetic field on this body?).

Is there a chance that astronauts will ever have the technology to travel to further planets or other galaxies???

The International Space Station is actually being built with planet colonization in mind. Once we learn better how to live in space, we'll better know how to set up a colony on the Moon or Mars. So, yes, I think humans may very well end up on some other planets by the end of this century...other galaxies...that could be a while!

As the solar system formed, the planets started as protoplanets. You can ready about this theory by clicking the protoplanets link.

June 30, 2000

Jimmy (age 16, Singapore )

If comets from afar can be
attracted by Sun's gravity, and
Pluto is also orbiting around the
Sun, how come Mercury with its
small size & density cannot be
sucked towards by the Sun,
considering its sheer size &
stronger gravity?

Planets don't fall into the Sun because they exert a forward force that opposes the force of gravity from the Sun. Planets that are closer to the Sun (like Mercury) must move faster in order to stay in orbit.

You can recreate this experiment yourself. Take a ball with a string on it and twirl it around. Notice how fast you must twirl to keep the ball going around in a circle and not falling.

Now, make the string shorter, and you'll notice that you have to swing it around faster. Make the string longer, and you won't have to work as hard!

June 26, 2000

Susan (age 19, California, USA )

What is the cause of retrograde motion of the inferior planets?

Scientists don't know for sure. The current theory is that some large object crashed into the planets with retrograde motion: Venus, Uranus and Pluto. At one time, these planets most likely had "normal" motion. The collision would have forced them the other way.

There are many differences between comets and planets. Comets tend to be much, much smaller than planets.

One of the biggest differences is type of orbit. Planets have a rather exact elliptical orbit, but comets don't. Although some, like Comet Halley, do have orbits that revolve around the Sun, others just fly through the solar system.

May 15, 2000

Xavier (age 9, California, USA)

Is there water in space?

Yes, if you include ice! The temperatures of space are too cold for liquid water. However, comets are made of ice, and there may be ice on some planets and moons.

February 9, 2000

Charles (age 49, Louisiana, USA)

Is our solar system in the same plane as our milky way galaxy? Are all solar systems in our galaxy in the same plane as our milky way galaxy?

The plane of the solar system, called the Ecliptic which runs along the Zodiacal belt of constellations, is tilted about 60 degrees to the plane of the Milky Way.

There is no physical reason why these two planes should be identical. Stars have their rotation axis pointed at random in space, and the plane of the solar systems that orbit them should also be oriented pretty much at random with respect to the Milky Way.

February 8, 2000

Pat (age 13, Washington, USA)

Why do only gas planets have rings?

We actually don't know why only certain planets have rings. It may have something to do with the size of the planet, since only larger planets have them. Or, it might have something to do with their distance from the Sun: possibly being too near the Sun's gravity makes rings unstable.

January 11, 2000

Katy (age 13, Florida, USA)

which planet is spinning the fastest?

Jupiter spins faster than any other planet. One day is 9 hours and 55 minutes long. Earth's is 24 hours! Saturn is not far behind Jupiter. A single day on Saturn takes a whopping 10 hours and 14 minutes.

January 11, 2000

Amanda (age 13, Maryland, USA)

Why do the planets have a maximum and minimum distance from the sun?

The planetary orbits are in the shapes of ellipses, or ovals. That means, since the Sun is in the center, the planets will be farther away at the long end, and nearer on the side of the ellipse.

December 24, 1999

Jason(age 29, Illinois, USA)

When I was younger, I was taught a mnemonic device for remembering the order of the planets? Are you familiar with a good one?

This is the one I learned when I was young: My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets is one...Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. There are quite a few, this is just one...

November 20, 1999

Jennifer (age 18, Utah, USA)

What determines a planet and how do they decifer just an orbiting object in space?

Conventionally, a planet is defined by three properties. 1) It must be orbiting a star. 2)It must not be a star or star-like object. 3)Its self-gravity must be enough to hold it in the general shape of a sphere. Sometimes the line is not always exactly clear between what is a planet and what is not...hence the debate on whether or not Pluto is actually a planet (it is).

November 15, 1999

Mary (age 13, California, USA)

how many planets and moons have atmostspheres altogether?

Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto all have atmospheres. Only five moons in the whole solar system have atmospheres (Europa, Io, Ganymede, Titan and Triton).

July 15, 1999

Arturo (age 19, Germany)

Why do all the planets in our solar system orbit around the sun in the same direction? Could planets in other solar systems orbit their sun's the other way around?

All the planets orbit the Sun in the same direction (counter-clockwise as seen from above) because of the way the solar system formed. The cloud of gas which are solar system formed in began to rotate the planets simply formed within the same rotation as the cloud they came from. It is perfectly plausible that other planets rotate their stars the other way around since the orientation of stars and the rotation of their planets is random. In fact, the plane of the Ecliptic in our solar system is tilted about sixty degrees to the plane of the Milky Way.

why isnt there gravity on other planets? Is there life on the other
planets besides earth? Are you a real scientist and whats you name? Are
you famous? Have you been on any other planet before? How old are you?
Are you
telling me the truth?

Boy oh boy, you sure have a lot of questions! All planets
have gravity. Some planets have more than others. Right now, we know
that only Earth has
life, although we are always look
ing for others. Yes, I am a real scientist!(Although I just joined the
Windows team
recently)
No, I'm not famous.... YET. I haven't been on any other planet- that I
know of. I'm a lot older than you....
And of course I'm telling you the truth! Scientists don't lie!

March 14, 1999

Charlie (age 9) Mark (age 31, Maryland, USA)

How do you tell a star from a planet in the night sky? Do stars twinkle when viewed from space?

Well, one good way to tell stars from planets is that looking at them with the naked eye, stars twinkle and planets don't. Stars are so far away that they are essentially just a single point. Movement in the Earth's atmosphere causes them to look li
ke they are twinkling. Since the twinkling effect is caused by the atmosphere, stars do not twinkle when viewed from outer space.
We receive more rays of light from planets, which balances out the effects of the atmosphere and makes them look like steady lights, even though they can appear no larger than stars.

January 19, 1999

Morgan (age 12)

If we looked up at the sky from a different planet, what colors would we see and why would we see them?

That would depend on what planet we were on. If we were on a planet with no atmosphere, we would see a perfectly black sky both at day and night. On Mercury, for example, which has a very little bit of atmosphere, we would be able to see stars and t
he Sun, but the sky would be pitch black, even in the middle of the day. On Jupiter, the sky might be white because of suspended ice particles. On Mars, we know from pictures taken that the sky is red because of all the dust there.

January 12, 1999

Victor (age 44)

Are planets of the solar system lying on a plane? Why is this?

Yes, they are, more or less. The reason for this is that when the solar system formed, it was formed from a collapsing disk of spinning gases, with a bulge in the center which became the Sun.

November 30, 1998

Rachelle (age 14)

What are the chances of a blackhole at the end of our solar system that is going to wipe us out.
If so is this the reason some of the outer planets spin so fast? Is there a better chance of it being a blackhole or a planet x?
Should we be worried?

There is no black hole near our solar system (they are still only theoretical), and there is no Planet X. So, there is no reason to be worried about that!

November 19, 1998

(age 40, Illinois, USA)

Can trees grow on another planet?

None of the planets in our solar system other than earth have the conditions necessary to support plant life (ex. oxygen, water, correct temperature, etc.)

September 1, 1998

Wendel (Age 23)

What is the last and next time the planets of the solar system will all be in a line?

All nine planets won't all be in a line (perfect alignment) in the predictable future. In 1982 there was a "grand alignment," which occurs every 176 years, with all nine planets on the same side of the sun. So the next grand alignment looks to be in
2158.

July 15, 1998

Jim (Age 37, North Carolina, USA)

How was the age of the Sun determined? How about the Planets in general?

The solar system is thought to be about 4.6 billion years old. Here's how scientists get that number.

June 22, 1998

Jason (Age 10, Australia)

Ben (Age 7, New Zealand)

Debbie (Age 35, Arizona, USA)

I was wondering why planets are round in shape? Especially as some of the planets are called 'gas giants'. And how come the Moon is round?

The planets, the Moon and the Sun are round because they are big. You see, an object's gravity tries to pull all of its material as close to its center as it can. A sphere is the best shape for this because every point on a sphere's surface is as close to the center of the object as any other point on the sphere's surface. For smaller objects, like your dog or an asteroid, the internal strength of the object is stronger than its own gravitational pull, so their irregular shape persists. Also, when the Moon and the planets formed, most of their material was really hot and somewhat molten. This made it easy for gravity to pull the planets and Moon into a spherical shape (especially the gas giants!).

June 22, 1998

Sunshine (Age 15, Michigan, USA)

What keeps the planets in orbit?

The Sun's gravity is what keeps the planets in orbit. Without gravity acting as the centripetal force (the pull toward the center of the Sun), the planets would move off in a st
raight line into outer space!

June 19, 1998

Nitisha (Age 11, New Zealand)

What are planets made from? What are the rings on some planets made from?

The terrestial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) are composed mainly of rock and metal. The Jovian or gas planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are made up of mainly Hydrogen and Helium gas. Pluto is made of both rock and ice.

The
rings of planets seem to be made of water ice chunks and then some rocky pieces with icy coverings.

How/why can tiny (i.e.postage stamp size ) debris travel through outter space at a such high rate of speed? What would happen if one of these postage stamps hit the Space Shuttle?

Even small specks of paint travel at speeds of about 17,500 miles/hour. The space shuttle is hit by orbiting bits of paint or ice particles from earlier missions. These impacts with such minute particles cause minimal damage (scratching the surface
of the shuttle, causing small dents), but enough so that the International Space Station will have a bumper to absorb stray particles.

Each time the shuttle does go into orbit, it runs a one in a million chance that it will be hit by a trackable piece of space debris (those objects that are greater than eight inches in diameter). A crash with s
uch an object would cause an explosion many times that of a hand grenade. The explosion could be fatal to any astronauts onboard.

June 8, 1998

Jim (Age 37, North Carolina, USA)

I would like to know how Astronomers know how far things are away from us and how big things are. For that matter how was the sizes of our own planets in our own Solar System determined as well as their distance?

The method for determining distances to objects actually depends on how far away the object is. Distances to planets were first well-determined by Copernicus using simple observations of the positions of the planets. Relatively nearby objects beyond
the solar system will appear to shift position relative to distant objects as the Earth moves from one side of the Sun to the other. This effect is called parallax, and you experience it everyday. Parallax gives reliable distances to stars up to about 1
00 parsecs. But 100 pc isn't very far, little more than the solar neighborhood. Distances to galaxies can be determined via Cepheid variable stars, and many other methods.

Once distances are known, it's not hard to get sizes. Suppose you hold a quarter at arm's length, and then have someone take that quarter 100 yds away. Obviously the quarter appears smaller, though it's real size hasn't changed. If yo
u know how big it appears and how far away it is, you can work backwards and figure out how large the quarter really is. Astronomers can measure how big something appears to be on the sky, and if they can figure out it's distance, they can calcul
ate how big it really is.

April 16, 1998

Freddy (age 8, New York, U.S.A.)

How was it proven that the Sun is the center of our Universe?

Well, as far as I've heard, the Sun is not at the center of the universe. In fact, the Sun is not even the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The center of the Milky Way is found by looking in the direction of the constellat
ion Sagittarius. Sagittarius is a summer constellation in the northern hemisphere, so you should be able to look that way soon!

April 3, 1998

Eric (age 12, Rhode Island, U.S.A.)

How do planets get their rings?

We don't really know where the planetary rings come from. They are probably pieces from collisions between the planets and stray asteroids. Perhaps too they are leftover pieces of material that never got together to become moons. These pieces of ma
terial are held in orbit by the planet's gravity.

March 24, 1998

Ann (age 18, Michigan, USA)

Can planets be considered 'stars'??

Stars give off energy. Since our planets simply reflect the energy of the Sun they are not considered to be stars.

March 17, 1998

L (age 17, Australia)

What is the role of planetismals in planet formation ?

Planetismals were the smaller, comet-sized objects out of which the planets were formed. As solid material began to condense out of the solar nebula, they swept together to form boulders. They could stick together because they were a little warm &
soft, kind of like "silly-putty". Eventually a larger group of planetismals would crash together and form the core of a planet. the remaining Planetismals would then crash onto the large planet-sized object which was building up. Near the end of this pr
ocess, planetismals would create craters on the surface. Some of these craters can still be seen today on the moon & some planets like Mercury which have not experienced surface change since those days.

March 4, 1998

Glenn (age 10, Wisconsin, USA)

Is it true that there is a molten planet before Mercury? If there is, could you send me a picture?

No, Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun.

March 3, 1998

Linda (age 12, North Carolina, USA)

What is the 'entire'(estimated) mass of the Kuiper Belt by itself and what is the 'entire' (estimated) mass of the hypothetical Oort Cloud? How could you do an experiment to prove that that these objects to prove that they would effect the orbits of U
ranus and Neptune?

We don't really know the masses of either object. However, the mass of the Kuiper belt is probably close to the mass of Jupiter, say 2x10^27 kg. The Oort belt is estimated to be in the range of 1.5x10^25 kg. Astronomers don't do experiments to see
if these objects would affect the orbits of the planets. They look for any tiny irregularities in the predicted orbits of the planets. These irregularities mean that possibly there is some object like the Kuiper Belt or the Oort Cloud that has a strong
gravitational pull which is altering the path of the planet.

February 17, 1998

Jesse (age 9, Ontario, Canada)
Matthew (age 8, Michigan, USA)

Do all nine planets travel around the sun at the same speed?

No. The closer to the sun, the faster the planet travels to counteract the sun's gravity. Click here to see a chart of planet speeds.

February 11, 1998

Mark (age 14, Holland)

I've heard that in the year 2000 all seven planets will be on a row. Is there any danger that the gravities of the seven planets is so much that they will start to attract each other ? Or is there anything to worry about?

On May 5, 2000, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all be within 16 degrees of the sun. They will not really be in a line, but they will all appear close together. Since they will be so close, many astronomers are calling this occurence a
Grand Conjunction. There is definitely no danger of their gravity affecting us. There have been many conjunctions in the past, none of which have had a noticable effect on the Earth. And the planets are too still too far away from each other to effect
each other's orbits.

January 29, 1998

Cheryl (age 17, Alberta, Canada)

Does our solar system have a name, or is it just called 'The Solar System'? If it does have its own name, what is it?

Our Solar System is just called the "Solar System." 'Solar' means "of the Sun", which is the central part of the entire group of planets, moons, and space debris that make our Solar System.

January 28, 1998

Katya and Cynthia (age 9, Illinois, USA)

How big does an object that is circling a planet have to be to be considered a moon? Can big rocks within the rings of Saturn or Jupiter be called 'moons'?

As far as I know, there is not a lower limit on the size of a moon. In other words, moons come in all shapes and sizes! Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter, is 3,166 miles (5,276 kilometers) in diameter w
hich is larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto! One of the Saturn's smallest moons is Helene which is only 10 miles across!
I do know that for a moon to be officially added to the list of satellites, there must be at least 2 photographs of it, it must have a predictable orbit and it must not be a part of a ring system.

January 13, 1998

Dirk (age 44, Wisconsin, USA)

How are the densities of the other planets in the solar system determined?

Density is the mass of an objecty divided by its volume. Scientists determine the mass of planets by looking at properties such as their pull on nearby objects. They also look at what the planets are made of, using data gathered by the space probes.
Using this information, and knowing how big the planets are, they can use the above formula and find the densities of the planets.

January 5, 1998

Jackson (age 7, Melbourne, Australia)

Why do planets spin as they orbit the sun?

The planets have been spinning since the beginning of the solar system, when they were formed. Since they are already spinning, they will continue until something stops them. This is called the conservation of linear momentum.

December 8, 1997

David

Will we be able to live on other planets?

Probably. Mars is the most likely planet humans will try to colonize first since it is more similar to Earth than any of the other planets. NASA plans to send a manned mission to the Red Planet by the year 2020. See Audrey's question below for link
s to other questions about inhabiting Mars.